The Switch
by LilSheepish4427
Summary: Dawn's visit to Pallet with Brock and Ash takes a strange turn when she tries out one of Gary's inventions... Ikarshipping one-shot!


I randomly thought of this idea yesterday and so I wrote this.

Disclaimer: I don't own Pokémon or its characters. This fanfic was only for fun. 

Professor Oak's Pokémon lab was most likely the largest building in Pallet Town, with its two stories, its newly installed automatic door, and its stone walls that made it look somewhat like a castle. It was in this building that Ash, Dawn, and Brock walked in.

Seventeen-year-old Dawn had never been to Pallet and was very excited when Ash invited her for a visit along with Brock. When she arrived with Brock, she was amazed at the town's smallness; it was almost as small as Twinleaf. Brock, who had been there before, showed her the way to Ash's house, just a few blocks away from the Pokémon lab. Dawn excitedly rapped her knuckles on the door and waited, bouncing on the balls of her feet, for Ash to answer the door. When he did, she gave him a quick, and crushing, hug and walked inside, forgetting to say hello to Ash in her excitement.

"And hello to you, too, Dawn," Ash said, chuckling. He gave Brock and firm handshake.

"So, how have you been doing, Ash?" Brock asked, walking through the door. Meanwhile, Dawn was running around the house, looking in every room.

"This house is huge!" Dawn exclaimed from the kitchen.

Ash grinned and turned back to Brock. "Been doing well. Pikachu's with Gary in the Pokémon lab, and I was just going to get him."

"I can't wait to see Pikachu!" Dawn yelled from the basement.

"How's Misty?" Brock asked, grinning.

Ash blushed a little. "Actually, she was just going to come over. She should be here in about an hour." He rubbed the back of his neck.

Brock, still grinning, put a hand on his shoulder. "I still can't believe you actually got enough guts to propose."

Ash blushed even more. "Shut up."  
>"What?" Dawn ran into the room. "Since when were you engaged to Misty?"<p>

"Um, since, uh, last month?"

"Why didn't I hear about it? As your friend, I am required to know everything about you, especially important things like getting engaged!"

Brock rolled his eyes. "I think Ash was just in so much disbelief that Misty actually said yes that he forgot all about it. Though, really, he could have proposed ten years ago and she still would have said yes."

Ash punched him on the shoulder. "Be quiet, Brock. Anyway, let's go get Pikachu."

"Okay!" said Dawn, running out the door. "I've never been to the Pokémon lab in Pallet before!"

The three walked in the enormous building five minutes later. Dawn was amazed at the inside of it. She had never seen so many machines and gadgets in one building in her life.

"If it isn't Ashie boy." Dawn turned to see whose this voice belonged to, and her eyes beheld none other than Gary Oak, his white lab coat almost reaching his black shoes. His hair was the same since she last saw him, though it had become a bit darker than before.

"He still hasn't stopped calling you that, Ash?" Dawn asked, turning to Ash.

Before Ash could respond, Gary spoke. "So, you're Dawn?" Dawn nodded. "I've seen you in a very long time, though I can say you've become much prettier."

As Dawn blushed, Ash rolled his eyes. "She and Brock are visiting me for the weekend. We're just coming by to pick up Pikachu."

"Of course, right this way." Gary turned after giving Dawn a flirtatious smile and a wink, to which Ash, again, rolled his eyes.

"I hope you didn't perform any experiments on him, Gary," Ash said.

"Experiments?" Dawn asked.

"You know that was only once," Gary said before Ash could respond to Dawn. "And besides, I'm more interested in human behavior at the moment. In fact," Gary paused for dramatic effect, "I have a new invention you might want to see." Gary walked through a door that led outside the lab to a small fenced-in field. Pikachu was already at the door, waiting to see his trainer. He jumped onto Ash's shoulder. Ash smiled and scratched Pikachu's head.

"Alright, let's go see my invention," Gary said, quickly turning and walking down a hall.

"Hm, I guess Gary's excited about whatever this thing is," Ash said, walking after Gary with Dawn and Brock following him.

"In here!" Gary called out from around a corner.

The three and Pikachu followed the sound of Gary's voice and turned the corner.

"Woah."

The room was huge, taking part of each story of the lab. Machines and random inventions littered the floor, hung on the wall, and swayed from the ceiling. Everywhere they looked, the trio and Pikachu could see blinking lights.

"This is amazing!" Dawn said excitedly.

"Why haven't I seen this room before?" Ash asked.

"Looks like Gary's been busy," Brock said.

Gary appeared from behind a giant machine in the center of the room. "Ready to see what this baby can do?"

Ash was somewhat reluctant. "Well, I don't know…is it dangerous?"

"You'll see." Gary grinned. "Who wants to try first?"

"Ooh, I will!" Dawn ran up to the machine.

Gary grinned and pushed a button on the side, opening a metal door. "Just step inside and watch it work its magic."

"Okay," Dawn said, walking in. "You've tested this before, right?"

"I might have," Gary said, pushing the button again.

"Wait, wha-" Dawn was cut off as the door closed again.

Ash was very concerned. "Gary, maybe you shouldn't…what if it isn't safe?"

"Oh, come on, Ashie boy. Has anything ever gone wrong before?" Gary twisted a few knobs on the machine.

"Well, no, but what does it do?"

Red lights started flashing. "I'm not exactly sure, so hopefully this test will show us what it does."

"What?" Ash ran up to Gary. "What do you mean you don't know what it does?"

"Well, I have a few ideas…"

Suddenly, there was a _ding_ sound, and the red lights stopped flashing.

"I think that means it's done," Gary said.

"Then open it!" Ash said, agitated by the fact that Dawn could be hurt.

"Fine, fine." Gary pushed the button again. Slowly, the metal door opened. Steam poured out, obscuring the spectators' view from Dawn inside.

"Dawn? Dawn! Are you okay?" Ash stood in front of the door, trying to wave the steam away. "Dawn say something!"

Finally, the steam cleared away, and everyone could see inside.

"Oh my God," Ash said, covering his mouth.

"Nice going, Gary," Brock said, shaking his head.

"So _that's_ what it does," Gary said, scratching his head. "Who knew?"  
>Standing in the machine was none other than the infamous lavender-haired Paul, Pokeball in hand. "Torterra, stand-" Paul stopped himself, noticing his surroundings. "What the… where the heck am I?"<p>

Paul seemed confused and totally surprised. "What is _Paul_ doing here?" Ash asked, wide-eyed.

"I could ask you the same," Paul said, putting away the Pokeball in his hand.

"This is interesting," Gary said.

Paul turned to see Gary. He raised an eyebrow. "Gary Oak? Okay, someone please explain what's going on."

"We were performing an experiment to test out….well, to see exactly what the machine in which you're standing does." Paul stepped out of the machine as if scared it would do something else to him. "First, we placed Dawn Hikari, maybe you know her-"

"Of course he knows her, she used to travel with me and we used to see Paul all the time!" Ash said, his competitive side showing now that his main rival (since Gary followed in his grandfather's footsteps to become a Pokémon professor, he hasn't done much battling, but both Ash and Paul are master trainers and still battling, so Gary is no longer Ash's rival) was in the room.

"Dawn? I might remember her," Paul said, very palely blushing, contrasting his ice cold eyes that revealed none of his true feelings.

"Interesting," Gary said. "Anyway, Dawn was put in the machine, the machine was activated, and then you appeared, replacing Dawn apparently."

"Wait, you just put a girl in a machine without knowing what it does?" Paul said, furrowing his brow.

"That's what I said! Wait, why do you care?" Ash asked, suspicious.

"I don't," Paul said smoothly. "I am just questioning Oak's methods to testing out his inventions."

Gary nodded slowly. "Uh-huh. So, we are narrowed down to three things this machine could do." He paused for dramatic effect, but it didn't work. He sighed and continued. "In each choice, the outcome would be the same: the subjects switched places."

"Seriously?" Paul seemed very amused. "I was in the middle of a battle, so I guess Dawn will have to finish it for me. Let's hope she doesn't fail miserably."

"She won't. She's an amazing battler, even if she is a coordinator," Ash said a bit angrily.

Paul rolled his eyes. Gary continued, "So, choice one: both subjects had the same state of mind. For example, both were down heartened, both were excited" Ash snorted at this, but Paul just ignored him "or maybe both were nervous."

"I don't think so," Ash said. "Dawn seemed very excited with the whole machine thing, and I doubt Paul had ever felt excited in his life."

"These insults are kind of unnecessary, as they are not really affecting me, and I'm assuming that's their purpose?" Paul said with a wave of his hand. Ash angrily glared at him.

"Don't forget," Brock said, "at the last second, Dawn seemed kind of nervous about the test."

"That's right," Gary said, nodding. He turned to Paul. "Were you nervous at all during you battle?"

"Not at all," Paul said. "Actually, I was feeling somewhat amused at the whole battle."

"Amused?" Ash asked.

Paul just ignored him. "So, what other choices do we have?"

Ash glared at Paul. Gary continued. "Well, my second choice was that both subjects were doing the same thing at the same time, but, since Paul says he was battling, we know that one can't be right."

"So the third one must be the right one," Brock said.

"What is the third one, Gary?" Ash asked.

Gary seemed to be trying very hard to keep himself from laughing. "Um, Gary, are you okay?" Ash asked.

Gary's grin broke through. "Sorry, this is going to be hilarious."

"What is it now?" Paul asked in a flat tone.

"Well, my third choice was…" He started cracking up.

Paul sighed. "Either Oak here has gone mad or this is some huge joke."

"It's neither," Gary said, finally composing himself. "The third choice was that…okay before I say it-"

"Just tell us," Paul said, getting very irritated.

"Before I say it," Gary said, ignoring Paul, "please take note that this machine does not lie. There is no possibility of any malfunction, since I was watching it the whole time and it seemed to run very smoothly."

"Why do you have to tell us this?" Ash asked. "What does the machine do?"

"The machine, by analyzing the subject within the machine's brain, determines the subject's perfect 'match' and switches the subjects' locations."

There was a silence. Then:

"I'm going to find some way home. Good luck getting that girl back." And with that, Paul calmly walked out the door, leaving a grinning Gary, a nodding Brock, and a dumbstruck Ash.

THE END 

Haha, you can't fight fate, Paul! Or Gary's machinery!

That was kind of fun, I guess, but it wasn't very good…oh well. Maybe someone will like it.

Thanks for reading!


End file.
